Huawei Is Security Threat, U.S. Lawmakers Say After Probe

Huawei Technologies Co. , China’s largest phone-equipment maker, poses a security threat to the U.S., leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said as the panel prepares to issue a report on its probe of the company. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. companies should avoid business
with Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest phone-equipment
maker, to guard against intellectual-property theft and spying,
the U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman said.

U.S. companies considering purchases from Huawei should
“find another vendor if you care about your intellectual
property, if you care about your consumers’ privacy, and you
care about the national security of the United States of
America,” Representative Mike Rogers told CBS News’s “60
Minutes,” according to a CBS release about an interview set to
air tomorrow.

Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and the committee’s top
Democrat, Maryland Representative C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger,
are preparing to issue a report Oct. 8 on their yearlong
investigation of Huawei and ZTE Corp., another Chinese phone-equipment maker. The lawmakers have been looking at whether the
companies’ expansion in the U.S. market enables Chinese
government espionage and imperils the U.S. telecommunications
infrastructure.

“Huawei is a globally trusted and respected company doing
business in almost 150 markets with over 500 operator customers,
including nationwide carriers across every continent save
Antarctica,” William Plummer, a Washington-based spokesman for
Huawei, said in an e-mail. “The security and integrity of our
products are world proven. Those are the facts today. Those will
still be the facts next week, political agendas aside.”

Susan Phalen, a spokeswoman for the committee, didn’t
immediately respond to a request for comment.

Committee Investigation

Executives for Huawei and ZTE, both based in Shenzhen,
China, denied links to espionage during an intelligence
committee hearing last month, telling lawmakers they aren’t
controlled by the Chinese government.

The companies said they favor independent audits of
technology vendors’ hardware and software as a way to ensure
that devices and networks are secure.

The panel’s probe coincides with increased U.S. warnings
about digital spying by China. U.S. counterintelligence
officials called China the world’s biggest perpetrator of
economic espionage in a report last November, saying the theft
of sensitive data in cyberspace is accelerating and jeopardizing
an estimated $398 billion in U.S. research spending.